Bing has been just as good as Google for me. It's actually better, because I end up with a gift card for $5 every month from searching with them. If I'm searching for something scientific, I'm using database searches anyway as I have that option on my university laptop.
I will concede that Google Maps is better than Bing Maps, but I have to say, I find Outlook to be much better than GMail, especially if you're big in to social networking. I've used Gmail religiously for the last 5 years or more and recently discovered how much better Outlook is. It's just way, way prettier too.

If you've used Google for a long time you can't just leave it all of a sudden. Bing and Hotmail/Outlook are both mediocre services. Everyone uses Google and Gmail because quite simply they are superior services. Google Maps are awesome. This is me not being a fanboy, this is me stating a fact(I'm not even an Android user). Go check out some stats on how many people use Google and how many people use Bing. Google is the BEST search engine out there BY FAR.

As someone said above, Microsoft does not understand the world outside the US which is why Windows Phone has been such a miserable failure in Europe and Asia. Wanna see how Good Microsoft is outside the US? Go check out the Bing maps of Japan. People on this forum talk about simply 'switching' to outlook are people who've probably not used email/calendar/maps etc from other providers. Because if they did then they'd know you can't just 'switch' over from something you'd been using for 10+ years.

I've been using Gmail for several years. I just switched to outlook.com and I'm never looking back. I hesitated at first, but after trying it for a week I couldn't believe how much better it was. Gmail is joke compared to Outlook.com

I think your suspicion is correct. Also don't forget our four official languages which complicates things further.

I feel that Microsoft just doesn't understand anything about the world outside the U.S. For example, I really don't understand why the website www.bing.ch exists in the first place. Why not just stick with www.bing.com, and make everything else configurable?

For example, although I live in Switzerland, I am interested in news from Germany, the U.S., China, anything related to the EU and Switzerland. I prefer most of my web searches to be in English, but I want to quickly switch to French or German searches when necessary. I'm rarely interested in restricting my searches only to sites in Switzerland. Unfortunately, Microsoft insists on pigeonholing everyone, based on what country they currently live in. That might work in the U.S. where most people speak exactly one language and aren't much interested in the happenings beyond their boarders, but that is completely different for Europeans. We cross boarders constantly and we typically speak more than one language, and that affects what we are interested in and how we use search.

Like I said, all this stuff should be configurable, and not based on the country code of the domain you use to search.

Great idea, IMHO. I'm the same ... Switzerland is not an island, even though some Swiss believe so (But that's an entirely different subject)

BTW, not being able to buy music via Zune is someting that had annoyed me as well ... thanks to the help of a friendly MS supporter (I have a good impression of MS support, btw) I was able to switch that option on by adding a german hotmail account. But I'm not the average user, I'm not scared by technical terms and things. An average Swiss person would only notice that he can buy music in iTunes, but not in Zune.
(Btw, as a Nokia user, I have the possibility of using their service for buying music, thanks god. Not sure if this works worldwide, but it works for me. A lot of Nokia users and others don't know about this option. I think Nokia should advertise this more ... but that's another story altogether.)

Someone wrote about Siri problems when using french ... didn't know Apple had similar problems. Interesting.

Thanks everyone for contributing here!!! Maybe I should write MS a letter.

Another reason would be not joining the US in WW1 and WW2 and keeping all that money in your banks... It's payback time! By MS.

I didn't see a twinkling smilie, but I suppose you meant this as a joke cause I really don't want to go into a discussion about which country has done which bad things in the past and present. We might hide money, but 1) I'm not personally hiding any in my cellar 2) We're not the only ones, even though media are making the world believe this and 3) The rest of the world were and are no angels either. You just need to check some history books or watch some good, well-researched documentaries to find out what I mean. I'm not going to talk about the things former non-Swiss have done and are doing to other people in this thread, because that would be completely off-subject and belongs to another forum.

Bing is okay for me. Not always as good as google search but good enough mostly. However, what is about to drive me away from WP is the limited German keyboard library (it really matters). When I use the English keyboard everything works really really well, but using the German keyboard sometimes is a real fight. This tells alot about the commitment of MSFT and other companies for non-US/UK markets :(

Surely its obvious. If nobody from a country bothers using bing why put effort into it? As people start using bing, they ramp it up, as they understand what people want to do.
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Surely its obvious. If nobody from a country bothers using bing why put effort into it? As people start using bing, they ramp it up, as they understand what people want to do.
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Uhh why the **** would someone from a particular country use Bing if Bing sucks in that country and Google works perfectly fine?

@SnailUKTrue ... but as long as, in most peoples minds in my area (not only Switzerland, mind you) don't even know bing exists, they won't even consider using it. As I said in the thread before, "google = internet search" is hardwirded into so many minds, it's going to be hard to change, especially when google just works better for those people than other services.

Surely its obvious. If nobody from a country bothers using bing why put effort into it? As people start using bing, they ramp it up, as they understand what people want to do.
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Your logic is flawed. Why should anybody switch to Bing if its much worse than Google, just that Microsoft can start to make it better after a while? And Microsoft doesn't have the greatest reputation around here anyway.

And if Microsoft doesn't want to provide a functional product, they should let me put Google onto WP's search button.

Your logic is flawed. Why should anybody switch to Bing if its much worse than Google, just that Microsoft can start to make it better after a while? And Microsoft doesn't have the greatest reputation around here anyway.

And if Microsoft doesn't want to provide a functional product, they should let me put Google onto WP's search button.

everyone had to start somewhere. Google wouldn't have been able to optimize its search engine of no one searched using google right? Search engines are pretty smart, if you give it the time of day to search. Its gonna take a while to get Bing optimizes, but I'm glad to know that I'm one of the rare that are helping it optimize its searches.

Switzerland is not an island, even though some Swiss believe so (But that's an entirely different subject) .

Yup... agree... and also another very interesting topic, but once I get started nobody can shut me up on that, so I'll spare you all

Originally Posted by Luminatic

BTW, not being able to buy music via Zune is someting that had annoyed me as well ... .

WP8 brought Xbox Music Pass to Switzerland. That now works without any hacks. What I can't figure out is why audio search still isn't available. With access to Microsoft's online audio library, the last technical barrier was lifted. If you're going to write a letter to Microsoft don't forget to ask what's up with that!

Originally Posted by Luminatic

I was able to switch that option on by adding a german hotmail account. But I'm not the average user, I'm not scared by technical terms and things. An average Swiss person would only notice that he can buy music in iTunes, but not in Zune. .

Great that you were able to get that crummy situation resolved. I've also solved it for myself, but I'm not going to describe my solution in public and it definitely isn't one I can generally recommend. Anyway, I absolutely agree with your assessment of iTunes vs. Zune. That is killing WP over here. Another example of how Apple is so much better at getting that sort of thing right everywhere in the world.

everyone had to start somewhere. Google wouldn't have been able to optimize its search engine of no one searched using google right? Search engines are pretty smart, if you give it the time of day to search. Its gonna take a while to get Bing optimizes, but I'm glad to know that I'm one of the rare that are helping it optimize its searches.

Back in the days there were so many search engines and Google drove them all out because it provided something new in addition to good search results: A very simplistic interface with no commercials on the main page and no blinking banners and stuff.

Bing is very, very late and doesn't provide anything new or better (yeah, the pretty pictures are pretty, but who cares?) and the search results are worse. There's just no reason to switch to Bing, except if you have a Windows Phone and hope the 3th hardware button will become more useful when you do ;-) (And even then, you can just ignore the Search Button as do I...)

I can't believe some people are claiming Bing needs time. Live Search launched in 2006 and MSN Search in 1998! In all this time, Microsoft has only managed to sort out the US (and not all of it from what I read here).

Kilaj, what are your problems with the German keyboard? (Just out of interest)

Word prediction / auto correct. Very often it simply fails to deliver the most obvious suggestion but rather alot of related terms or just nonsense. I constantly have to delete and rewrite words. Not so much with the English keyboard ... I just now wrote complete garbage and it corrected everything. It's like day and night and even after one year with WP7 I still miss Swiftkey :(

I can't believe some people are claiming Bing needs time. Live Search launched in 2006 and MSN Search in 1998! In all this time, Microsoft has only managed to sort out the US (and not all of it from what I read here).

Well people also say Windows Phone needs time, which has been out for over 2 years, which in smartphone terms is 20 years.

I doubt I could ever go Google free. I have too much stuff tied up into google. But I have moved my email services to Microsoft for a more integrated experience. I still use Google for searches, Analytic's, AdSense, Google Reader for my RSS feeds etc.

Google Reader was what kept me hooked. Until now that is. The new update of Weave (not syncing with google reader) is just amazing. Won't be needing google anytime soon.. :D
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For me it's not so much about trying to be Google-less, but more about wanting to support Microsoft specifically. That said, I do have to admit that I sorta do see Google as quite "evil", and I wont shed a tear for a customer they lost, but mostly for me it's me wanting to see Microsofts equivalents succeed.

Personally I switched everything Google I had to MS equivalents when I got a WP and I havnt looked back at all. There are still times when Bing just gives me some ******ed results (or no results), but as said, like 95% of the time I find what I want.

If Microsoft wants my support, they just need to make their software less sh*t, simple. I can't force myself to use something sub-par just for support (specifically talking about Bing search here), I'm the one missing out, not Google.

For me it's not so much about trying to be Google-less, but more about wanting to support Microsoft specifically. That said, I do have to admit that I sorta do see Google as quite "evil", and I wont shed a tear for a customer they lost, but mostly for me it's me wanting to see Microsofts equivalents succeed.

Google wants to make money, Microsoft wants to make money, Apple wants to make money (they are the worst with their "we love everybody, we love you, buy our products and spend a lot of money, just for our love!!!!"-shows) and I really see no difference in the amount of evil in these companies.

With all the free services, Microsoft wants to earn money with our data as much as Google is doing it. They don't just try to establish Bing because they want to be nice guys.

At least that is what I think...

Originally Posted by Coreldan

Personally I switched everything Google I had to MS equivalents when I got a WP and I havnt looked back at all. There are still times when Bing just gives me some ******ed results (or no results), but as said, like 95% of the time I find what I want.

Google Reader was what kept me hooked. Until now that is. The new update of Weave (not syncing with google reader) is just amazing. Won't be needing google anytime soon.. :D
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The magic of Google Reader is syncing across any device you have. If I read an article on my PC or tablet, then GR won't show it to me when I check my phone. It's convenience that no RSS reader can give you.